Rabbi Joshua Eli Plaut Ph.D. is the author of a new book "A Kosher Christmas: 'Tis the Season to Be Jewish," published by Rutgers University October 2012. As the first book to be written on Jews and Christmas in America, it is the product of 20 years of research, comprising a serious, anayltical yet fun survey of 150 years of Jewish responses to the December holiday season, with empahsis on the past thirty years.

Rabbi Plaut, ordained in 1986 by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, has a Ph.D. in Hebrew and Judaic Studies from New York University. His first book "Greek Jewry in the Twentieth Century"; now in its fourth edition, was published in 1996 by Fairleigh Dickension University Press.

Based in New York City, Rabbi Joshua Plaut is the full time executive director of the American Friends of Rabin Medical Center, a national non profit charity helping to raise funds and awareness for one of Israel's premier hospitals, the Rabin Medical Center of Petach Tikvah. Prior to this, Rabbi Plaut was Executive Director of the Center for Jewish History, as well as Jewish Chaplain at MIT and Trinity College, and Rabbi in Martha’s Vineyard. and Glastonbury, Conneticut.

For over thirty years Joshua Plaut has also been an acclaimed photographer of Jewish life in the diaspora. His ten photography exhibitions have been displayed at major museums and galleries across the United States, Europe and Israel. His photographs are in the permanent collections of museums, archives and private individuals.